1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording apparatus and an information recording method of recording additional information different from a recorded image on a heat-sensitive recording medium that develops at least one color in response to an application of thermal energy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods have been developed for recording information such as texts and images, including electrophotography, ink-jet printing and thermal printing. The thermal printing utilizes a heat-sensitive recording medium made of a base material such as paper or synthetic paper to which a coupler or a developer is applied. Thermal energy is applied to the medium by means of a thermal head and the like so that the medium develops a color. An image is thereby recorded on the medium. The thermal printing has advantages in that no development is required as for photography, the density of a color is high and a high-contrast image is obtained and so on. The further advantage is that thermal printing is implemented with a recording apparatus of simple configuration at a low cost. The thermal printing has been therefore widely used in the fields of black-and-white facsimiles, printers and so on.
Although heat-sensitive recording media for black-and-white image printing have been mainly used for the thermal printing, media has been further developed for multicolor image printing including full-color printing. Such a heat-sensitive recording medium for multicolor printing includes a plurality of layers that develop colors different from each other. For example, the medium is made up of a base material to a side of which three color developing layers are stacked. The layers each develop a cyan, a magenta and a yellow. The layers develop colors in response to thermal energy belonging to the different energy ranges. The upper layer responds to higher thermal energy for developing a color, that is, the thermal energy for developing a color increases in the order of the yellow layer, the magenta layer and the cyan layer, for example. The density of developed color increases with an increase in thermal energy within the range of energy for developing each color.
Through the use of a heat-sensitive recording medium for multicolor printing as described above, a long-life multicolor image is obtained, having excellent hues and color separation that are difficult to obtain with prior-art techniques. Another excellent effect is that an image obtained may be turned to a transmission image or a reflection image.
Furthermore, some additional information such as a date may be recorded in a region where an image is recorded on the medium described above. In general, such additional information is superimposed on the recorded image in a method similar to the image recording method. In this case, the additional information is directly recorded on the heat-sensitive medium. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-52428 (1995), for example, some thermal transfer image recording apparatuses utilize a lamination method for recording additional information.
In the related-art method of directly recording additional information by superimposing the information on the recorded image, however, the recorded image to be the main subject is seriously affected such as a loss of part of the image where additional information is applied. To avoid such a loss, a space may be provided for recording additional information. However, the image recording area is reduced by the space.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-52428, the lamination method is used in the thermal transfer image recording apparatus for recording additional information without seriously affecting the main recorded image. In the lamination method, a transparent film is applied to an image recording surface and the film bears variations in glossiness corresponding to the additional information. In this case, however, a lamination mechanism capable of controlling glossiness is required. The apparatus is thereby complicated and the cost is raised.
It is an object of the invention to provide an information recording apparatus and an information recording method of recording additional information on a heat-sensitive recording medium with a simple configuration without seriously affecting a main recorded image.
An information recording apparatus of the invention comprises: an application means for applying thermal energy and pressure to an information recording surface of a heat-sensitive recording medium on which principal information is recorded; and a control means for controlling the thermal energy applied by the application means. The control means controls the thermal energy applied by the application means based on gloss characteristics of the medium so that the additional information is recorded on the information recording surface on which the principal information is recorded through the use of variations of glossiness of the medium.
An information recording method of the invention comprises the steps of: determining thermal energy corresponding to additional information based on gloss characteristics of a heat-sensitive recording medium; and recording the additional information on the information recording surface by varying glossiness of the medium through an application of the determined thermal energy to an information recording surface of the medium.
According to the information recording apparatus of the invention, the application means applies thermal energy and pressure to the information recording surface of the heat-sensitive recording medium on which principal information is recorded. The control means controls the thermal energy applied by the application means based on gloss characteristics of the medium so that the additional information is recorded on the information recording surface on which the principal information is recorded through the use of variations of glossiness of the medium.
According to the information recording method of the invention, the thermal energy corresponding to the additional information is determined based on gloss characteristics of the medium. Glossiness of the medium is varied by applying the determined thermal energy to the information recording surface. The additional information is thereby recorded on the information recording surface.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.